The New Face of the GOP

IN TODAY’S ELECTION EDGAR GONZALEZ is attempting to go where no Latino has gone before–to the Virginia House of Delegates. If he wins, the Republican Gonzalez will be not only the first Latino to sit in the House of Delegates, he’ll be the first ever to have run in a general election. From afar, his race appears to be one in which party loyalty and identity politics clash. Gonzalez faces 10-year incumbent Karen Darner, a white Democrat. The 49th District, redrawn this year by Republican state legislators, is only 21 percent white. Hispanics make up 41 percent of the district, African Americans 19 percent, and Asians 8 percent. As might be expected, in the past the district has voted overwhelmingly–about 70 percent–Democrat. In July, Gonzalez, a Salvadoran immigrant and successful real estate agent, won a closely contested primary in which he battled two other Latinos for the Republican nomination. All three candidates were recruited by the GOP to move into the 49th District this year in order to compete for the nomination. This aggressive outreach by the Republican party is part of a growing GOP effort at all levels to find friends in constituencies previously considered hostile. The success George W. Bush had as Texas governor–he garnered 49 percent of the Hispanic vote in his 1998 reelection–proved it could be done. Gonzalez says he first realized that he was a Republican because of shared social values. “I believe in hard work and dreams, not in handouts,” he says. “Like many Hispanics, I was a Republican and didn’t even know it.” His campaign has focused on improving education and opposing any tax hikes for Northern Virginians. But while Gonzalez is optimistic about his chances of winning and proud his party put forth the first Latino candidate for the House of Delegates, he may be a sacrificial lamb in a great effort by the Republican party to spin its message to Virginia’s growing minority population. Socioeconomic status usually trumps race as a predictor of voting patterns, and the 49th District may not be ready to elect a Republican. Some area Latino voters have balked at the idea of supporting a Latino candidate just because of his ethnicity. And even if all registered Latinos did vote for Gonzales over Darner, Gonzalez’s election would still be in doubt since a disproportionate number of Latinos are not registered to vote. The Republican efforts in Virginia might be in vain–the state is still less than 5 percent Latino–but they do fit into the party’s national candidate-recruitment strategy. “We try to recruit candidates that can win in a specific district,” says Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Be it a Latino or a member of another minority group, it just really depends on the district.” Win or lose, the candidacy of Edgar Gonzalez is sending a message. Beth Henary is an editorial assistant at The Weekly Standard.

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